Moments that change you
by Toxikkiller
Summary: When Naruto has to make a choice to save his friends but reveal his secret, what will he do? And are there going to be more changes because of this choice? I suck at summaries and the characters will change with pairings.


**A/N: This is my first fan-fic ever so please review and whatever to tell me how to improve. **

**Disclaimer: Of course I do not own Naruto but if I did I would be very happy so if the real owner wants to donate it please feel free.**

**P.S I will not be using the honorifics in this story as I'm not confident I will get them right. There is some more stuff but I'll do that at the bottom.**

**Moments that change you**

**Chapter 1: a civil conversation?**

The cool autumn wind was beginning to pick up as it grew later in the day. Naruto pulled his bright orange jacket closer to him in an effort to keep the chill out. The fallen leaves crunching beneath his feet. As he looked up he noticed that the trees were almost complete without their leaves. He had just come back from a solo C-rank mission and it had barely taken him a few hours. It was just a few thugs that were harassing a small village just outside Konoha, they weren't even ninja so it wasn't a surprise that it didn't take him long. Judging from the position of the sun he guessed it was around 3 o'clock, he had left just before 12. As he looked up at the sky he began to wonder what his friend Shikamaru enjoyed about the sight of them so much. Sure they were relaxing to look at but they weren't that amazing. Naruto gave a slight chuckle as he just put it down to Shikamaru being lazy, that was after all what he was known for, brilliant but lazy. Naruto's amusement soon drained and a sigh escaped his normally smiling lips as he remembered what day it was today. October 10th, his birthday. Normally someone's birthday was a time for joy and celebration, but not for Naruto. For Naruto his birthday just brought back sadness and when he was younger it brought fear. Fear because it was the day when the beatings he often received got much more violent and much more painful. He shook his head to clear the memories, he was past that now and since he became a ninja the civilians had never even got a decent hit on him. He was brought out of his thoughts rather forcefully by a metal pipe being brought across his face... hard. As he reared back from the strike he could feel the blood welling up in his nose but the kyuubi stopped the bleeding before it really even began. After he blinked away the reflex tears he saw that it was a civilian who been the one that attacked him. So much for what he had been thinking before. "Look it's you people have been trying to kill me for years, why don't you just give up" Naruto asked with a trace of annoyance creeping into it near the end. "The Yondaime hokage didn't give up so we won't either, demon" even without the man slurring every word heavily Naruto would have known the man was drunk just from the smell of alcohol on him. Naruto just sighed and turned around to walk away, he knew what happened to people who attacked him for containing the nine tailed fox, the kyuubi. The old man hokage had passed ad decree that meant all who attacked him were to put to death. This had happened on a number of occasions and Naruto didn't want any more civilian blood on his head. So he always just turned away from and civilians who tried to attack him. When he turned around he saw that there was a crowd of perhaps a dozen people all staring at him with hate in their eyes... and weapons in their hands. There were more metal pipes like the one the first man had but there were some with kitchen knives it looked like. Letting loose another sigh he just jumped to the roofs and carried on walking to his apartment leaving an angry mob screaming insults and howling for his blood. He knew they would still try to attack him there but at least there would be an ANBU there, there was always at least one there. Surprisingly the rest of his journey was uneventful minus of course the usual shouts of 'Demon' and the jeers that accompanied him whenever he was in the city. When he got in his melancholy mood had settled and refused to leave him. He decided he would make get himself some food and then just go to bed. After he searched his cupboards he got out a cup of instant ramen. His friends thought that he only ate ramen because he had an obsession with it, well it was partly because of that, but it was also because it was mostly all he could buy. Money wasn't the issue, he had plenty of that from his missions and from money given to him by the old man that he had never been able to spend. The problem was that the villagers hated him because of the damn fox sealed inside of him. As usual he slurped the ramen down in record time when it was ready, it seemed that no matter what mood he was in he could always bring himself to eat ramen at something close to mach speed. After he finished, about 2 seconds after he started, he decided to make good on his decision and go to bed. After undressing and throwing on a plain black t-shirt and some shorts he climbed into bed and tried to fall asleep. For a while he couldn't get to sleep from the ache coming from the hit the villager had got on him. The fox had healed the wound but it still ached. Ironic he thought that the same thing the villagers were trying to kill him for was what had kept him alive all these years. After that his mind drifted to the mission to bring Sasuke.

_*Flashback*_

Naruto could just see the entrance to Konoha village as he carried an unconscious and very beat up Sasuke on his shoulder. Naruto's condition wasn't much better but at least he had the fox's chakra to keep him going, but even that was running out now and he was on his last legs. He could feel himself getting weaker and he started to stumble on some of his steps. When the people gathered round the gate saw him some of them rushed out to help him. Then he blacked out.

When Naruto next regained consciousness he took a moment to take in his surroundings. Smell of disinfectant. Check. Buzzing of machinery. Check. Before he opened his eyes he already had a hunch where he would be. Opening his eyes the white tiled ceiling confirmed his idea. He was in the Konoha hospital. Someone quickly took notice that he was awake and Naruto saw them rush off probably to call for Tsunade. Once again his theory was proven correct as about 10 seconds later. As usual she fussed over his injuries but he was sure the fox would have taken care of them by now. This is where his correct theory streak ran out, because when he tried to move he was met by and agonising pain from all over his body. He very nearly blacked out again from the pain, when his vision stopped swimming he saw Tsunade's concerned face."I know you're used to having the fox heal your wounds more or less by the time you wake up but this time it's different." Was the first thing Tsunade said after the pain went away. "Your wounds were much worse than they've ever been. You almost died ever with its healing powers." This came as a shock to Naruto as he had never really thought about the limit to Kyuubi's healing powers. He was forced to wait in the hospital for another 2 weeks to allow his injuries to heal to a point where Tsunade would let him out. It was the longest he had ever stayed in the hospital and he was beginning to make plans for an escape attempt when he was released. The first thing he did of course was go to Ichiraku's to get some ramen instead of the hospital poison they call food. After he slurped down 15 bowls of ramen he went to go check on the people who had been released from the hospital earlier. Lee was his usual annoying self, screaming something about 'THE BURNING POWER OF YOUTH', Shikamaru was back to watching the clouds although he did seem to tense whenever a certain kunoichi from sand was mentioned. Choji was eating barbeque at his favourite restaurant, Kiba was getting special training from his family and he wasn't enjoying it if the begging Naruto to hide him was any suggestion, and Neji was still in hospital recovering. All in all it looked like life was returning to normal. It was when Naruto was returning home when he caught sight of Sakura, he ran after her calling her name with a smile from ear to ear. When Sakura stopped she didn't turn around. "See I told you I'd bring him back. I mean after all I did promise you I would." What happened next was something Naruto didn't expect. Sakura turned around and punched him straight on the jaw, knocking him to the ground."What are you talking about bringing him back, you nearly killed him. All because Sasuke is better than you and you've always been jealous of him. I bet the others did all the work!" she screamed at him. Naruto was just staring at her, with his hand to where she had punched him. Sakura then walked up to him and started kicking him in the stomach. Sakura had hit him before but nothing like this. As tears welled up in his eyes she finally stopped her assault and stomped off. It was 10 minutes after this happened when Naruto finally picked himself up and walked in the direction if his house. He had thought that after this mission she would finally decide to take notice of him and forget about Sasuke but it seems he was wrong.

_*End flashback*_

Naruto scowled at the memory of what happened the day after that. Sasuke had gotten a full pardon for his crimes courtesy of the elders **(or whatever the old people are)** on the grounds that he was doing it to make the village stronger by reviving the Uchiha clan. Of course not many of the ninja accepted him back but the villagers did with open arms. After this Naruto finally drifted off to sleep.

_*mindscape*_

Naruto opened his eyes and found himself in the now familiar sewer that was his mind. He knew the only way to get out of here was to either wait until he woke up or see what the fox wanted. He of course decided to see what the fox wanted as it didn't mean sitting down for several hours with nothing to do. When Naruto got to the fox's cage he stood in front of the bars in front of the paper with the word 'seal' on it, just outside of the fox's range he knew from personal experience. He stood there for about 5 minutes and was starting to get impatient. Just when he was about to speak up the fox's spoke. "why?" was all it said leaving Naruto confused. "Why what?" he replied. "Why do you not feel hatred towards the villagers and all those who have wronged you? You have done nothing to provoke them and yet they hate your very existence". It was actually kind of funny as he had had this argument with himself occasionally but by now he had his answer "I don't hate them because that would only prove they're point" he said with an edge to his voice "and besides they hate me because of you". "Exactly they hate you because of me, and yet you have proved time and time again to be loyal but they still hate you. You would be perfectly justified to hate them or strike back at them. If they fear you then they would never attack you again". "But if I struck out at them every time they said something then I would have to leave and then I'd be alone again" he began to trail off and finished with the sadness and loneliness very obvious in his voice. "hmmm" was all the kyuubi said. He said nothing further though it was not like the silence he usually got from the fox. It was more like it was thinking about something. Before long Naruto started to feel himself wake up. When woke up he just lay in bed thinking about what just happened. Did he just have an almost civil conversation with the Kyuubi?

**End chapter 1**

**How did I do? Like I said this is my first time writing anything so please review and give me any pointers on how I can improve. Also in the reviews please answer:**

**Do you want the Kyuubi to me female? He's going to friendly with it either way but still**

**Who do you want the pairing to be with? Can be any girl except Sakura or any of the adults. (I kind of want to do either and Ino, Tayuya or a FemKyuubi pairing but let me know your opinion.)**

**Any way thanks for reading and hope to write again soon(after reading reviews)**


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